Jerusalem Placed Under Curfew; Haganah Joins Battle for First Time in a Year

July 22, 1947

Jerusalem (Jul. 21)

A dusk-to-dawn curfew was imposed on the Jewish quarters of Jerusalem today following yesterday’s series of attacks on police stations and armored cars in the city during which at least ten soldiers and policemen were wounded. The government announced that the country-wide casualty toll during the week-end was three killed, including one Jew, and 23 injured, of whom five were Jews.

This morning three attacks were made on the Haifa radar station as the Haganah joined the battle in its first open action since last year. The Haganah operations reflect the rising wave of indignation among Palestine Jewry at the killing of three persons aboard the blockade runner Exodus and the deportation of 4,500 passengers to France.

The attacks in the pre-dawn hours culminated in the destruction of the wireless installations at the station which is at Ahuza, south of the city. The first two raids, about an hour apart, were diversionary actions directed at a nearby signal detachment camp of the Sixth Airborne Division by about 15 members of the resistance movement using machine guns, small arms and hand grenades. One Jew, Moshe Airkin, died in a government hospital in Haifa from wounds received in the operation.

The final raid, which put the electronic lookout post out of commission, was carried out by about 50 men. Before attacking, Haganah raiders strewed the area with land mines. After the blast, a pitched battle developed in a nearby wood

At noon today an oil pipeline was blasted and damaged outside of the settlement ##Kfar Yehoshua, between Haifa and Affula. Eight Jews were subsequently detained questioning. Among them was a party of four who were found with a pistol and dig## implements in their possession. The Irgun announced its responsibility for taching the pipeline, asserting that its members had mined it in four places. In ##fa itself a military jeep was blown up by a landmine. Two British soldiers were ##iously injured.The city of Nathanya today completed its first week under martial law. "Operation Tiger," which has not turned up the two sergeants whose kidnapping was responsion for the imposition of military control, nor terrorists, nor illegal arms, has ##ceeded in rendering 60 percent of the 15,000 Jews in the town unemployed. It is ##imated that local industry has suffered losses amounting to about $500,000.Tomorrow the government is holding a memorial ceremony in honor of the 88 per## killed in the blasting of the King David Hotel last year. In its invitation government personnel to attend the meeting, the Palestine Information Office refers the explosion as "the most dastardly of outrages perpetrated by Jewish terrorists Palestine."